Weekend Box Office - X-Men: First Class Flies Coach

In what could easily be described as the worst X-Men movie opening ever, X-Men: First Class hit screens this weekend with lots of fanfare but less than super-hero results.

While it nabbed the number one spot, this latest in the X-Men franchise only banked a mediocre $56 million. That's consiberably less than any of its predecessors except the original X-Men which debuted at $54 million. Bear in mind that those $54 million would be closer to $80 million when considering inflation in ticket prices over the last ten years.

So, why the poor turn out for First Class? There are lots of theories, but my favorite involves the absence of Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen and, of course, Hugh Jackman. At $56 million the movie saw comic fans and summer-crazed teens showing up to buy their tickets, but without the big names and six pack abs, the rest of the country just couldn't be bothered to show up.

The Hangover Part II took a painful hit as Americans woke up to realize it wasn't worth the ticket price. The biggest sequel of the summer to date slipped nearly two thirds from last weekend to $32 million. But no one over at Warner Brothers is crying about it. With over $186 million in domestic sales in just twelve days and almost $340 million banked world wide, the movie's already another massive cash cow for the studio.